Through tears, fired Dallas police officer Amber Guyger repeatedly told a 911 dispatcher “I thought it was my apartment” after shooting and killing her neighbor Botham Jean in his apartment last year.
The 911 tapes, obtained exclusively by station WFAA-TV, reveal a frantic and distraught Guyger, who claimed she accidentally shot Jean, 26, after mistaking him for an intruder.
A jury convicted former Dallas officer Amber Guyger of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Botham Jean last year. (Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
After identifying herself as an off-duty officer, Guyger explains that she thought she had entered her own apartment “[and] I shot a guy thinking that he was … thinking it was my apartment.”
“You shot someone?” the dispatcher asks.
“Yes, I thought it was my apartment,” Guyger replies, repeating the phrase another 18 times throughout the call. “I’m [expletive]. Oh my god. I am so sorry.”
“I’m going to lose my job,” she adds.
The Dallas Police Department, as well as the Dallas County District Attorney office, had declined to release the Sept. 6 recordings, and argued that doing so would interfere with their investigation into the fatal shooting. On Tuesday, the police department issued a statement saying it didn’t authorize the release of Guyger’s 911 call and have launched an investigation into how WFAA got a hold of it.
The 30-year-old officer had just wrapped up a 14-hour shift when she returned to her Dallas apartment building that evening. After parking on what she thought was the third floor, Guyger headed to her unit. I was only after her fatal mistake, however, that she was actually on the fourth floor and at the wrong apartment.
Jean and Guyger, who didn’t know one another, lived one floor apart. Her apartment was directly below his. The then-cop told police she saw a dark “large, silhouette” across the apartment — to which the door was slightly open when she arrived — and shot into the dark after Jean ignored her commands.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” Guyger is heard saying on the call minutes after firing the fatal shots. She reportedly provided first aid to her neighbor and urged Jean to “stay with me bud” as they waited for police and paramedics to arrive.
“Hey bud, hey bud, hey bud,” she’s heard saying, her victim moaning in the background. “Come on.”
Jean was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died from his injuries.
The then-officer turned herself into police three days after the shooting, and was subsequently charged with manslaughter. She was fired from the force on Sept. 24, and a jury indicted her on a murder charge in November.
Jean’s family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Guyger and the city of Dallas.
Guyger’s trial is set to begin in September.
Hear more in the clip below.
